The instrument panel reinforcement structure is the part of a motor vehicle extending between left and right front pillars in front of the passenger compartment. Various components mounted on the instrument panel reinforcement structure include the steering column assembly, a glove box, a passenger side air bag, an instrument cluster, an entertainment/information system, a heating/ventilation/air conditioning unit with associated ducts, a wire harness, electrical modules and fascia. The inclusion of driver side air bags and the locating of some controls in the steering column assembly have caused it to gain weight and to grow in size.
Passenger vehicles have been made safer in recent years through the use of safety devices such as seat belts and air bags. In addition, automobile manufacturers are making the body and its associated components more energy absorbent in the event of a collision. The United States government has also established a set of Motor Vehicle Safety Standards mandating certain other minimum vehicle safety requirements.
In the prior art, some attempts have been made to provide instrument panel structural reinforcement assemblies for motor vehicles. However, the prior art assemblies generally suffer from one or more serious disadvantages making them less than entirely suitable for their intended purpose. For example, steel assemblies have been used for some time but they add considerable weight to vehicle bodies. Accordingly, there is a need for an alternative to steel instrument panel assemblies.
Onitsuka U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,186 describes an automobile instrument panel assembly supported by a reinforcement 4 comprising a pipe 5 extending between two pillars 3. The pipe has a uniform size in the cross-car direction. A steering column mounting bracket made up of metal sheets is welded to the pipe 5 on the right (driver's) side. Onitsuka's assembly is difficult to manufacture economically because it includes so many individual parts welded to the pipe 5. Accordingly, there still remains a need for a stiff, light weight, economically manufacturable instrument panel reinforcement structure.
A principal objective of our invention is to provide a light weight instrument panel reinforcement structure for motor vehicles that has enhanced structural stiffness in order to minimize steering column vibrations.
A related objective of the present invention is to provide an instrument panel reinforcement structure for motor vehicles made from aluminum alloy and magnesium alloy components. The reinforcement structure of the present invention offers about a 40% weight saving compared with similar systems having steel components. The preferred reinforcement structure shown and described herein weighs only about 18 pounds (7.7 kg).
Another objective of the invention is to provide a light weight instrument panel reinforcement structure that consumes little additional cockpit space and is inexpensive to manufacture and to install on a mass production assembly line.
A further objective of our invention is to provide an instrument panel reinforcement structure that adapts easily to left and right hand drive cars and accommodates different steering column orientations.
One important advantage of our invention is that it has a common base structure adaptable to a variety of different designs by addition or swapping of components, thereby reducing effort, time and cost required for engineering the instrument panel structural system.
Additional objectives and advantages of our invention will become apparent to persons skilled in the art from the following detailed description.